Joao Carvalho died on 11 April 2016 after he was knocked out during an MMA fight in the National Boxing Stadium

THE TWO FIGHTERS at the MMA contest that claimed the life of a 28-year-old Portuguese man “gave absolutely everything”, an inquest has heard.

Referee Mariusz Domosat described the fight as an intense and fast-tempo contest.

“There was loads of heavy punches but it wasn’t anything unusual. Maybe the tempo was unusual, both fighters were fighting really hard and really intensely,” he said.

Joao Carvalho, aged 28, from Almada, Portugal died at Beaumont Hospital on 11 April 2016 after he was knocked out in the third round of a Total Extreme Fighting contest at the National Boxing Stadium.

The Polish referee said by the third round, both fighters were becoming tired. He said there was less power in both fighters’ punches than in previous rounds.

“Joao looked more tired than Charlie. He was tired but he kept his hands up,” Domosat said.

He stopped the fight in the second half of the third round because Joao Carvalho looked exhausted.

They both showed huge heart in that fight. It was back and forward. There’s was loads of exchanges,” Domosat said.

The referee said since the fight on 9 April 2016, he had only watched back over the last thirty or forty seconds of the match because he hadn’t had the opportunity to view the whole fight.

Minutes after the referee stopped the fight Carvalho became unwell and vomited in the medical room.

The inquest at Dublin Coroner’s Court heard from Carvalho’s brother Jose Alexandre Silvestre, who said to contest a fight abroad was his younger sibling’s “dream”.

“It was something he always wanted in this sport, to fight in a different country. It’s what the fighters want.”

After the fight, Carvalho was treated at the Richmond Intensive Care Unit at Beaumont Hospital, a neurocritical ICU staffed by neuro-speciality surgical, medical and nursing staff. He was pronounced dead at the RICU unit at 9:30pm on 11 April.

State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy conducted a postmortem examination and gave the cause of death as given as acute subdural haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma with inhalation of gastric contents as a contributory factor.